1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for address mapping and resolution in a communications network, and more particularly to a method and apparatus wherein network mappings that are more specific from the requesting entity's point of view, perspective of the network, are used before network mappings that are less specific relative to the requesting entity.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Resources in a network are located and manipulated according to their associated network addresses. These resources may be hardware and/or software, including physical devices (routers, hubs, end stations, processors, components of larger physical entities, etc.) and processes. Any one resource may have a number of different types of network addresses. Each type may be used by a different network protocol to sustain that protocol's operation. The different network addresses for a particular resource are referred to as "aliases".
An alias can also be considered a mapping from one set, consisting of an address type and an associated value, to another set, of a different address type and associated value. For example, a resource may have an IP (Internet Protocol) address as well as a MAC (Media Access Control) address. In an application, it is useful to consider that the IP address maps to the MAC address and that one address type can be resolved to another address type, as long as a mapping is set up beforehand. To find a related MAC address of a known IP resource, the address mapping of the known IP address can be resolved to its MAC type, thereby obtaining its MAC value. The MAC value can then be used by the requesting resource (application).
Because of their importance to the overall operation of a network, there is an ongoing need for more efficient mapping techniques for resolving addresses.